Nebula
by Janec Shannon
Summary: Companion Piece for Stars. Before a star becomes a star, it's just a bunch of random particles in a nebula. Before Kallia Surana becomes the Kallia you all love she was just another mageling at the Circle.
1. Kali and Jowan

_Before a star becomes a star, it's simply a bunch of random particles in a nebula. _

_Before Kallia Surana becomes the Kallia you all love from my story Stars, she was just another mageling at the Circle. _

_This is a companion piece for Stars, however stories are perfectly fine as standalone pieces. The intent of this is to show you what Kallia's life was __**before**__ she was recruited to the Grey Wardens. As I've said before, Jowan wasn't always a blood mage and Kallia wasn't always a Grey Warden. At one point, they were just children. _

_This fic isn't going to be one continuous fic of her whole life, but will instead highlight the important parts. If you've read Stars then you probably have the basic gist of what some of those events are, but (as I'm sure you've noticed) I tend to tie everything together in less-than-obvious ways and put subtle references to things in my stories. Chekhov's Gun and all that._

_Think of this as the Stars DLC._

_Hehehe I'm snickering to myself at that reference. Not sure why it's so funny to me but it is._

_You might not have to read Stars, but I definitely recommend you do! (Because, you know, its sorta my pride and joy ;] ) Certain chapters here are particularly related to a chapter in Stars and when that happens I'll try to make sure I mention it in the Author's Note at the top of that chapter. So you can feel free to skip around and read the bits and pieces as you please. _

_But (__**completely**__**objectively**__) I think you should read it and I'm not the least bit bias, I promise! ;) Here's the link:_

**.net/s/5655515/1/Stars**

_I'll try to keep the Author's Note at the beginning of following chapters much shorter than this one, but since this is the first chapter it needed a bit of explanation. _

_You won't always know the exact age of the characters in these chapters for the simple fact that some of them don't know they're age. _

_Jowan has been at the Tower for as long as he can remember, so he doesn't know how old he is because, in the world I've created, mages don't care about age and so there was no one to keep track for him. _

_Cullen, on the other hand, grew up with people who __**do**__care about age. So he knows exactly how old he is and what his birthday is. _

_In this chapter, Kallia and Jowan are both about 5 years old so obviously the rating is fairly low. However the rating __**will**__ be going up to T and probably M in later chapters. _

.oO***Oo.

Kalus noticed the tiny elfling was having nightmares again and signed. This always happened when Darian told the children stories, his versions seemed to affect her worse than the other Templars though. Unsurprising, but that didn't make it any less upsetting. She was one of his, a child he brought to the Tower, and that was the closest thing he'd ever have to a daughter.

He held back a sigh as he watched her face barely distort in a flinch, even in her sleep she was careful what emotions shone through.

This was the best place for her to be, he knew that. Where she could learn in safety with her own kind, but still... Sometimes he found himself wishing that he could take them away from here. He was at that where he began to doubt that this was the life he wanted. It wasn't like he'd had much of a choice in the matter. He'd been abandoned on the Chantry's doorstep as a baby. They'd raised him and when he was old enough, sent him off to the Templars without so much as a _by your leave_.

And now, with so many innocent faces around him, he found himself wanting one of his own.

The elfling let out a strangled whimper and sat up straight in her bed. He quickly looked away as she looked around the room to see if she had disturbed anyone. She hadn't, most of these children slept as though they were under a sleeping spell.

Quietly as she could she stood on the edge of her bed and looked up at her bunkmate. The boy had taken her under his wing, of sorts, and Kalus found a measure of comfort in the fact that she had at least _someone_ to take care of her. She was so tiny, she certainly needed it. Even standing on her mattress, her nose barely reached the bottom of the top bunk. She stood on her tiptoes and whispered, "Jowan."

She spoke quietly, but there was little sound in the room to stop her voice from carrying. "Jowan," she whispered a bit louder when he didn't respond. The boy let off a quiet moan, but still didn't wake. Using one hand to hold herself up, she stuck the other through the railings and tugged on his sleeve. "Jowan!" she called again, her voice taking on a panicked whisper.

He mumbled in his sleep but didn't waken. The little elf looked over to the ladder and then back to him several times before scrambling over to it and climbing up to his bunk. The movement of his bed woke him and he stared at her in confusion for several moments, obviously trying to figure out what was going on.

"I'm scared," she explained in a tiny voice and the confusion melted from his face. The boy lifted his blankets up and held him arms open to her and she quickly curled up into the safety his arms offered. He tucked the blanket in around her and began to hum a quiet lullaby. Her body relaxed and she was soon on her way back to the Fade. Kalus smiled at the two magelings, until he heard a conversation so quiet, he doubted anyone else heard it. Looking around, he could see none of the Templars had even been paying attention to the two children. Kalus pursed his lips and told himself he would have a talk with the two in the morning. They were children and didn't know the repercussions that little conversation could have.

_"Love you, Jowan."_

_"Love you too, Kali."_


	2. Meeting Amell

Kallia glanced over at the new girl. "Do you want to play with us?" she offered with a smile. The other mage just glared at her for a moment then turned and faced the other way. Kallia tilted her head in confusion.

"C'mon Kali," Jowan told her, tugging on her sleeve. "She doesn't want to play and it's your turn to be the Templar."

Kallia gave the human girl one last look before sitting in the middle of the floor, covering her eyes, and counting. The rest of the magelings bolted, looking for hiding places.

"Nine, Ten, Eleven..."

"What are you doing?" the new girl asked.

Kallia kept her eyes closed as she answered, "Playing Maleficar Massacre._ Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen._ All of the mages have escaped the Tower and since I'm the Templar I have to hunt them down and kill them. _Fifteen. Sixteen. Seventeen._"

"That's horrible!" the new girl answered. Kallia couldn't place her tone so she just shrugged and kept counting as the young human sneered. _"_They call us evil, but the Templars are the evil ones. Stealing us away from our homes and families... What right do they have!" the girl demanded angrily. Kallia had no answer for her and since the girl's eyes had begun to fill with indignant tears that the young elf didn't quite know how to handle, she chose to simply ignore the statement.

"_Fifty-seven. Fifty-eight. Fifty-nine... Sixty!_ Ready or not, here I come!" Kallia yelled and stood, ready to run off and find her fellow magelings. She stopped after several steps and looked back at the human girl. " You can accept the world as it is given to you or you can spend your time wishing to change things you cannot. Let go of your old life or it will give demons a hold on you," she warned then turned on her heel and ran off to hunt mages.

The human watched as the raven haired boy jumped out behind the elf and yelled, "Winter's-"

Only to be uninterrupted as the elf turned around and pointed at him shouting, "Holy Smite!" Jowan doubled over as though in pain, but a smile lit his face and his shoulders shook with suppressed laughter.

"You always beat me, Kali!" he laughed as he rolled onto his back.

"That's because you come after me, Jowan. When are you going to learn that you need to just avoid the Templar, not try to attack them?" she sighed and her face became amusingly stern as she shook her finger at him and added, "You're dead now, quit talking. I have to hunt down the rest of the mages."

Jowan plunked down on the ground cross-legged and listened to the shouts of children's voices. One by one, his fellow magelings joined him announcing as they sat how many spells they got off before Kallia had taken them down. For most of them, the number was zero but occasionally someone would manage to get one.

Finally three humans came running in excitedly, "We beat her! We beat Kallia!" they cried as if it were the greatest accomplishment of their lives. Jowan watched as a quiet Kallia followed the group in. He immediately jumped up and ran over to her.

"Don't sulk, Kali. You're bound to lose occasionally," he teased poking her side as he tried to tickle her. The young elf used her better reflexes to swat his hand away and dodge his attempts to grab her with his other hand.

"I'm not sulking. I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong so I can correct it next time," she told him, but he knew her _I'm thinking _frown from her _I can't figure it out_ frown and the one that now graced her features was most definitely the latter. She settled herself on her bed and pulled out several large pieces of parchment. It quickly became apparent that she was tracing out the steps she'd taken and trying to find the flaw.

"Kali, sometimes it's just a matter of bad luck, stop focusing on it," the young human told her settling himself on the bed.

The young elf shook her head, "I must find the flaw in my strategy or they will be able to duplicate it next time. If I have a weakness I need to find it and correct it."

Jowan reached out to grab her pen, he opened his mouth to speak again but was stopped as the entire bed bounced. Both magelings looked over to see the new girl sitting cross-legged on the bed.

"I've decided you're my friends. I'm not going to tell you my first name because it's cursed so you can just call me by my last name, Amell. I'm eleven years old and will be twelve in three months," she declared and looked at the other two expectantly.

"J-Jowan, I don't remember my last name or how old I am," Jowan stuttered.

"Kallia Surana," Kallia replied as well, though she eyed the new girl carefully as she added, "I'm four."

"Four? No way you're still four! You're small but that's just because you're an elf," Amell laughed in disbelief. Kallia looked at Jowan questioningly but her fellow mageling just shrugged, he was confused as she was. "When's your birthday?"

The young elf shrugged and the mirth fell from the human girl's face.

"How long ago were you brought here?" Amell asked her.

Again, Kallia looked to Jowan for an answer.

And again, her best friend had no answer for her. "It was a while ago…" he offered.

"A couple years?" Kallia said, but she sounded unsure of herself.

"Yeah," Jowan agreed, nodding slowly. "Probably about two years ago? You've been here for two of Andraste's birthday celebrations…"

"So then you're six!" Amell declared happily. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave them both a small bow. When she raised her head, she was smirking, "We're going to be best friends."

.oO***Oo.

_For those of you who haven't read Stars or don't remember, Kallia mentions to the old elf she meets in Denerim that age isn't really given much attention in the Tower. In fact, they barely register the passing of time at all because they have no seasons to go by. _

_Kallia would know she was four when she was brought to the Tower, but there would be no one to tell her to advance her age a year. Hence Kallia's still saying she's four when she's really six._


End file.
